Friday, October 31, 2014

Today, Friday, October 31, I got the printed copies of Ang Ilog, marking a dream come true to be able to write and publish a comic book. Actually, by next week, I will have a second out in time for the year-end Komikon. It's a book titled, Dante.

First, Ang Ilog. This was something that dates all the way back to my childhood when I would spend my Christmas and summer vacations with my grandparents in Tarlac. There was a river next to the dike and my grandfather and I used to get on those rafts and paddle away. I had all these thoughts about kapres and the supernatural lurking in the trees and the woods nearby if not the water. But those figments of my imagination just as they were -- thoughts. That is until 2004 when in a two-week period, I penned scripts and short stories at Central Park in hopes of landing a writing gig at Marvel Comics. Joe Quesada once took a two-page proposal of mine for Quasar but I never heard from him (I waited for a year before I gave up all hope). Ang Ilog was one of those stories.

When I attended the summer komikon for the first time in my life, an old friend Gerry Alanguilan told me that I should put out those stories that I always wanted to do. I have about seven of them in fact. I refined the stories and it wasn't until Indieket that I finally mustered the wherewithal to get them done.

There is much to be learned from scripting and drawing sequential art as opposed to long rose and simple storyboarding (I am an advertising veteran who wrote copy and did art chores -- thumbnails and sketches for the visualizer). It's revealing and I tend to appreciate comic book writers more now. And that's something I will definitely work on in my succeeding works.

Nevertheless, seeing the actual comic book roll out from the printer and get a thumbs up from them -- it warms my heart. And I am excited. As a long time comic book fan (since I was three years old) and one who had things derailed 20 years ago, this one is a long time coming.

As I said earlier, I have a second comic book coming out by November 10 and in time for the Komikon. It's titled, Dante that is drawn by the talented Niño Balita.

Ang Ilog is about a journey of a young kid down the river outside familiar confines to sell produce and fruits that would enable them to buy medicines from the American soldiers encamped at Fort Stotsenberg in the early 1900s. Along the way he faces dangers from flesh-eating sirens to bandits to a nefarious river troll with only his wits to survive. It's a coming of ge story told in two parts. Book One sets up the story while Book Two goes into overdrive. I am releasing Ang Ilog in two formats -- regular and oversized formats and with English and Filipino versions. The regular size comic costs P80 while the oversized version is priced at P120!

Dante is about the son of Charon, the Ferryman of the River Styx who enjoys life more than transporting the dead to the Netherworld. Its mayhem and teenage angst amongst the dead and undead. No word yet on the pricing for this! Next week.

I used to have complete collections of these but lost them all during a typhoon. It's been tough trying to get them back. I really don't care about getting them in mint condition. I just want to have them.

Last Saturday, October 25, the second free comic book
day was held across comic book specialty shops all over the world. Only this
was called Halloween ComicFest; an event designed to bring in new readers to
the world of comic books.

The major and independent publishers use this
occasion to give away free and short comics that are either
made-for-the-occasion stories or samplers of previous stories mostly with a
horror/supernatural bent.

This is what I picked up (among titles I do not
collect):

Max Brooks’
Extinction Parade #1 (Avatar Press Inc.) From the creator of World War Z comes a new imagining of the zombie
apocalypse. As the undead gorge on whatever is left of the human race, that
other race of the undead, the vampires, are upset that their food chain is
dying off. So the vampires try to eradicate the zombie horde with the humans
caught in between this hellish and nightmarish battle. The first five issues
have been collected in trade paperback format. The free comic book features the
entire first issue of this new best-selling series! Not for kids with all the
blood and gore.

Hero Cats
(Action Lab) These aren’t your
ordinary house pets! Hero Cats of Stellar City are a super-powered team of cats
who battle threats to humanity! In this free 10-page freebie (it is
back-to-back with another Action Lab comic titles, “Princeless”), the cats’
imaginations run wild after a scary movie marathon at a local drive-in.

Rachel
Rising (Abstract Studios) From Terry
Moore, the creator of the indie comic book hit Strangers In Paradise comes
something completely different. Rachel wakes up believing it’s a Wednesday only
it’s a Friday. She’s been murdered and she aims to find out her killer. Moore
provides a new cover to the reprint of the first issue that hopes to bring
aboard new readers.

Scooby-Doo
Team-up (DC Comics) Re-prints the
first issue of the Scooby Gang’s team-ups with the various heroes of the DC
Universe. In this special Halloween issue, Scooby and the gang team up with
Batman and Robin to catch Man-Bat!

And a few more mini-comics:

Betty and
Veronica (Archie Publications) Betty
and Veronica plan to spend Halloween watching a screamfest of horror films.
When Archie, Jughead, and Reggie plan to scare the girls, little do they know
that he girls along with Veronica’s Aunt Gladys plan to flip the script on
their mischievous pals.

While the free stuff might be tame and not enough for
those looking for some thing to scare the daylights out of them, then you might
want to look for these titles.

30 Days of
Nights (IDW Publishing)

No, this did not begin in the movies. This was a
three-issue series published from August to October in 2002 by writer Steve
Niles and artist Ben Templesmith. Not only did this mini-series give the
creators much-needed popularity but it also gave the whole vampire milieu new
life (pun intended).

For those who have been living inside the bat cave,
30 Days of Night is about a clan of vampires who descend to the small town of
Barrow, Alaska where they have to endure 30 days of night at a certain time of
the year. The vampires use the occasion to sow carnage among the townsfolk.
Sherriff Eben Olemaun saves the town by injecting himself with vampire blood to
fight off the blood suckers. This features one of the best and most original
endings ever.

Afterlife
with Archie (Archie Publishing)

After Jughead’s pet, Hot Dog is killed in a hit and
run (by Reggie of all people), Sabrina brings the dog back to life. But the
spell goes awry and Hot Dog begins turning Riverdale’s folks into zombies
beginning with… Jughead. It’s mayhem but not in the traditional Archie day-glo
atmosphere way. This is not your mommy’s Archie Comics.

Wytches
(Image Comics)

From Batman writer Scott Snyder comes one of the most
terrifying comics in a long time (and that is saying a lot considering only one
issue has been put out). They don’t fly on broomsticks. Nor do they go to
Hogwarts. They live in the woods and will freak you out. The Blair Witch
Project of comics!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Each year, Halloween ComicFest is celebrated at your local comic shop the Saturday before Halloween. On this day, you can walk into any participating comic shop and get a FREE Halloween ComicFest comic!

And of course there's CosPlay! These guys below doing the Spider-verse are simply amazing!

Michael Cho's 'Shoplifter' might be
chick-lit but like The Devil Wears Prada or even Persepolis, the message is for
everyone.

The danger of walking into the trap of
boredom or a routine is the capacity for stupidity. After six years working as
a copywriter for an unnamed ad agency, Corinna Park is bored and burned out. She
deals with life in the rat race by waxing toxic during a brainstorming session.
She turns anti-social and shoplifts magazines just for kicks.

She becomes her own worst enemy. But
interestingly, her misdeeds also provide the path to coming to terms with who
she is. By disengaging from what is causing her unhappiness and getting on with
what she believes she needs to do with her life -- and that’s to write her own
books – she finds freedom and happiness. Thus, bringing a smile to her lips
that had all but evaporated.

While it isn't a complex storyline as
Prada, the road to ruin is the same. And yet amid all the loneliness, there’s a
glimmer of hope and a window of opportunity.

There’s a part of me that wonders of
Cho should have extrapolated a little more on Corinna’s week from hell but why
belabor the obvious?

Drawn in two colors – the pink color is
daring in itself -- this 96-page graphic novel is a beautiful story that
reminds us while pursuing our own dreams is important, the grind of corporate
life is a necessary part of the journey for there are lessons and experiences
to be learned.

Though limited to a more minor role,
the cashier at the mini-mart where Corinna shoplifts magazines, has that impact
of that copier store clerk (played by Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell)
in Jerry Maguire who said, “That’s how you become great, man. Hang your balls
out there.”

The cashier lets on to Corinna that he
has known all along that she has been shoplifting. But he knows she is a good
person who is doing something stupid. Sometimes, when things grow dark around
you, it’s that gentle nudge that works. And that’s the turning point for Corinna.

And the cool thing about Shoplifter is
Cho doesn’t present any villains you’ll want to hate like Miranda Priestly of
Prada or Bob Sugar of Jerry Maguire. The characters are believable, real, and
even sympathetic.

And that’s the triumph of Michael Cho’s
stellar first effort.

--------------------------I purchased my copy of SHOPLIFTER from Gosh Comics in London. I am sure you can order this from FullyBooked or even Comic Odyssey. It is published by Pantheon Books.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

As a kid, I wrote lots of letters to comic books that I read. It seemed every month guys like T M Maple had their letters printed in every book. Even letter hacks were like rock stars to impressionable young comic book readers like me. It was such a disadvantage living in the Philippines with snail mail taking forever to arrive in the editorial offices of Marvel or DC. That changed in 1994, before the publication of Aster by Entity Comics, Billy Lim-it of CATS asked me if I wanted to write a letter based on the ashcan so it would be printed. Of course, I leapt at the chance and felt great that I finally had a letter printed.

Not soon after that, I had another letter published… first in the pages of Nexus: Executioner's Song and Big Bang Comics. Then finally I got a couple of letters printed in a Marvel Comic -- Daredevil and Fantastic Four. That was the last of it as over the next several years my interest in comics waned. I still read them but wasn't too into them. It was partially because of work and because of other interests.

In the past year or so, my love for the medium had returned and I plunged back into it wholeheartedly. In doing so, I started writing letters again. Imagine how cool it is to have them printed on newer books like The Mercenary Sea, Low, and Manifest Destiny. That makes it three Image Comics in a row and four total. And what makes it even more cool is that Rick Remender, writer for Low, used my suggestion for the book's letter page (I recommended, Lowdown).As a fan who only recently decided to start publishing my own comic books again, writing letters to my fave books is part and parcel of the whole cycle. If you love the medium, you love the medium. Now it would be a kick to have one published in the pages of Uncanny X-Men.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

About two months ago, we spoke with Portland
Trailblazer Robin Lopez who is an unabashed comic book fan. Imagine our
surprise when we learned that MMA star Brandon Vera is another hardcore comic
book geek.

When you talk to Vera, you will notice that he
peppers his sentences with words like “zap” or “send them down with a sickening
thud.” Or at times, he will even wonder aloud if a zombie apocalypse will weed
out the bad guys so the good may finally claim the earth.

Vera laughs. “I said all of that, huh?”

The 6’2” MMA fighter now with ONE FC is massive comic
book and fan of The Walking Dead. “One of the perks of living in San Diego
(California) is I get to go to the annual Comicon (Comics Convention that is
arguably the biggest in the world).”

The Incredible Hulk is one of his all-time favorite
characters with the story arcs of Peter David and Bruce Jones as one of his
best. You know the saying, ‘You won’t like me when I’m angry?’ Yeah, that’s
from the television series of the Hulk, brother. But it’s still the Hulk.”

One of his best friends is an artist for DC Comics.
“I love going to the Comicons, man. Reading all that stuff, seeing the Cosplay,
the anime… there’s a lot to like. I’m like a kid in there.”

When informed that the November Komikon (this coming
November 15 at the Unilab Bayanihan Center along Pioneer Avenue) is the biggest
in the country, Vera got all excited. All of a sudden, he didn’t look like this
tall and bad fighter but that kid who read the Fantastic Four and Batman while
growing up. “I gotta make sure I am here,” he said. “A Komikon here in Manila?
This is something I have to see and be here for. This is just mind-blowing. My
hair’s standing up (even the ones I don’t have on my head.”

The Komikon is held twice a year in Manila. There’s
the summer event and the year-ender that is even bigger. It features many of
the works of current Filipino artists working on Marvel, DC, Image, and other
American comic book companies as well as many other local independent creators.

Comic books are something Vera and his two other
brothers got into as kids and the passion has never left the Fil-Am MMA
fighter. When asked how he is able to keep a composed self in spite of being
let go by the Ultimate Fighting Championship after eight years with them and going
through a painful divorce, Vera simply says points to his father as a source of
strength and that “cracking is simply out of the question. I’m a super hero,
brother.”

But Vera isn’t one living a fantasy world. His love
for the medium (remember The Walking Dead is started out as a popular comic
book) opened him up to reading other genres. “Yeah, it’s not simply kids’
stuff. It’s really grown that it can be read by people of all ages.”

He admits to also being a massive fan of the
television series, The Walking Dead. “I missed the past couple of episodes
because I have been traveling but when I get back to the States, I really have
to catch up on what I have missed… Don’t tell me what I have missed…”

Vera says that his two favorite characters are
Michonne and Darryl who are respectively played by Danai Gurira and Norman
Reedus. Darryl’s so bad ass, man. And Michonne? At first I didn’t like here but
she kind of grew on me. She’s now one of my faves.”

“I know I am asking too much and it probably won’t
happen but I hope they don’t kill off any more of the characters,” added Vera. “But
what a series? It really says a lot about people who remain the biggest danger
even in the zombie apocalypse.”

Monday, October 20, 2014

From Doomboy creator Tony Sandoval on
the music he was listening to while writing & drawing Doomboy: I have been
fan of metal ever since I can remember. I guess I was pretty young when I began
listening to that music. At the time I was writing Doomboy, I was listening to
Swallow the Sun (from Finland), Mournful Congregation (from South Africa) and
some other death and doomy bands. Well, Doomboy has many autobiographical
details, but I can´t say its totally about me. A lot of authors, painters, and
musicians influenced me. The list is long.